Anthony Vaccarello / Fall 2012 RTW

Search a show by:

Something has clearly happened to Anthony Vaccarello since his spring collection last September. Between Karlie Kloss closing that show in a slashed-and-draped black evening dress stretched erotically and tautly over her body (one wonders if that was the kick-start to la Kloss’s monumental Italian Vogue story a couple of months back) to opening Vaccarello’s fall show in a scalpel-sharp, deep, deep blue satin parka and pants, it is as if those six months were six years to him. Vaccarello has advanced at quite a rapid and remarkable clip. That’s not to say that that spring wasn’t good—it was sensational, in fact—but fall sees this young Belgian talent reach a new level of maturity, with a performance that was as accomplished as it was tightly focused. Backstage before the show, Vaccarello said he was “thinking of a more tailored look, more covered, and then I found this bleu marine satin, and suddenly I just wanted to do the whole collection in it.”

Vaccarello certainly made wonderful use of a notoriously tricky fabric, allowing its richness to simultaneously soften and polish his lean, lean, lean look. He took archetypal masculine pieces—the parka, the blazer, the shirt—and reconfigured them so they retained the sense of the body underneath. Then he anointed them with all manner of subtle detailing, like utility zippers, banding, and seaming, and teamed them with skinny pants and narrow all-in-ones. (And he made use of a standout accessory, a gold-buckled bracelet that looked like a metallic version of a black leather fetish wristlet.) Vaccarello also said he had been considering classic fifties underwear, with beautifully worked corset skirts in that satin and black lamé with bands of black patent leather and silver fasteners, and incorporated the era’s pneumatic pointy bras into a series of tops that cleaved to the body with an array of straps. By that point, Vaccarello wasn’t only feeling blue, but also a gleaming, emerald-green techno synthetic and gold lamé, which managed to look both glamorously molten and effortlessly cool in the combination of a simple shirt and column skirt.

This is a designer who loves a high-octane, ultra-sexy look, but—and this was much in evidence for fall—no matter how short, or tight, or skin-revealing it becomes, it always carefully walks a line that never becomes vulgar. Sitting front row, model and music producer Caroline de Maigret (a friend of Vaccarello’s) mused on what it’s like to wear his clothes. “Often I feel vulnerable if I am in something that’s too sexy,” she said, wearing one of the jumpsuits that models were busy working on the runway, “but I never feel that way when I am in something of Anthony’s. He has this way of letting you feel in control, of empowering the dress, rather than the other way around. It’s a rare gift.”